Breadcrumb

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity (OCD), Virgin (m)

Elizabeth Catez was born on 18th July 1880 in Campo d'Avor near Bourges, France, and she was baptized four days later. In 1887, her family moved to Dijon where her father died the same year. On 19th April 1890, she made her First Communion and the following year, she was confirmed. In 1894, she took a vow of virginity.

Feeling called to enter the religious life, she asked permission of her mother to enter Carmel but she received a firm refusal, and her mother only finally gave way on condition that Elizabeth waited until she was older. On 2nd August 1901, she entered the Carmel at Dijon where she was clothed in the habit on 8th December 1901. She made her religious profession on 11th January 1903 and 21st January the same year she was given the monastic veil. The five years that she spent in religious life brought her ever closer to God although the Lord tested her with many spiritual trials and severe physical suffering due to Addison's disease which finally brought about her death on 9th November 1906.

As Carmelites We live our life of allegiance to Jesus Christ and to serve Him faithfully with a pure heart and a clear conscience through a commitment to seek the face of the living God (the contemplative dimension of life), through prayer, through fraternity, and through service (diakonia). These three fundamental elements of the charism are not distinct and unrelated values, but closely interwoven.

All of these we live under the protection, inspiration and guidance of Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, whom we honor as "our Mother and sister."